Oak Park Minimum Wage Workers Bring Fight for $15 to Village Board

Oak Park, IL - Local fast food workers and community members marched May 2 from McDonald's on W. Madison Street to Dunkin' Donuts and KFC on their way to the Oak Park Village Board meeting in Village Hall.

The Fight for $15 group rallied for $15-an-hour wages and union rights in Oak Park and other suburbs, where the minimum wage is $8.25 an hour.

The workers made a formal request to trustees for a $15 living wage, and members of the group delivered public comments during the meeting.

“We want to see Oak Park establish a $15 living wage for all businesses in order to set the precedent for other suburbs” said Reverend C.J. Hawking of Arise Chicago.

Toward the end of the meeting, Trustee Colette Lueck said direction around a living wage ordinance has "languished" in the village.

"I think this is a critical issue for our community," Lueck said. "I think the pathways from poverty to the middle class have increasingly been closed ... All of those roadways out are increasingly more difficult to navigate. I really can't envision how anybody lives on $8, and I think that we need to move that forward."

Trustee Adam Salzman said he seconded Lueck's request for an ordinance draft.